Carsten Becker

Texts

Texts about the conceptual artwork by German artist Carsten Becker who lives and works in Berlin, Germany.

Texts

Forgotten Colors

Philipp Hindahl, 2018

Utility objects do not come by their colors randomly, they are chosen according to standards. In Germany, the RAL standard sets the norm, a collection of colors that meets the requirements of public authorities, the military and industry. In his work, artist Carsten Becker is concerned with the gaps and continuities in this collection. It displays a microcosm of German history. (…)

Thirdness (excerpt)

Carsten Becker’s historically- and philosophically-guided works investigate established systems and codes, utilising and deciphering them, before ultimately questioning what is left of them.

Carsten Becker’s multimedia long-term project Activity Tableau (2016) and Past nor Present (2016) deals with the mechanism of complete transparency and its potential for total monitoring and control. Becker’s installation includes two components: several silk screen tablets entitled Activity Tableau, and a programmed graphic presented via a website, entitled Past Nor Present. Carsten Becker has been documenting his daily working hours since the year 2000 as a digitalised data set. Each year’s results are transferred into a pattern based on programmed vector graphics, linked to the compound elements within the colour spectrum of light, and printed as a silk screen. The pattern of Becker’s work reveals and defines itself like a thumb print. Yet it is only he who has an emotional connection to this representation of his work ethic, not the recipient. A programmed graphic image combines analogue and binary interpretations of Becker’s work. Presented in a hybrid format, the past can be experienced as a part of the present.

Research on this work led to an intensive engagement with the RAL colour matching system, implemented as the standard colour catalogue for production by the state authorities of the Weimar Republic. In this spirit, Becker’s new work Panzergrau, Sandgrau, Dunkelgelb (2017) utilises the colours black grey (the paint on German tanks at the beginning of World War II, catalogued as RAL colour 7021/46), sand grey (the colour of German camouflage in Africa, removed from the RAL catalogue), and dark yellow (the first colour used for German infrared camouflage; numberless for reasons of state secrecy) in his triptych as part of his historical series on colour analysis.

Measurability in the transparency era (excerpt)

Tamara Branovic, 2017

Since the middle of the twentieth century, our view of society has been increasingly one through the “enframing of technology”. From a dialectic point of view this development cannot be judged either as positive or negative. Becker’s point indeed is not to illustrate a pre-determined opinion. Instead he captures the ambivalence inherent in today’s society that leads to the questioning of both the purpose and impact of current developments, including the concept of transparency. He questions the “rhythmus téchne”. Technical progress and digitalisation have led to a blurring of boundaries, and have a direct influence on our emotions, via téchne.

Becker consciously translates his personal data into a well-known colour spectrum, the universally recognisable colour scheme of the rainbow. Initially bearing a positive association, this coded system conceals a paradoxical message: it is aesthetically pleasing, yet also dangerously exploitable. An object initially perceived as decorative may be turned into a threatening symbol of control, monitoring, surveillance and power.

A desire to create a structure or pattern of our actions compels both Carsten Becker and our society in general to constantly optimise their individual presence. This “neurotic” pressure to perform is showcased by certain role models who have managed to establish themselves through perpetual self-marketing – the so-called branding phenomenon – via social media channels. In this way, society strives for achievement at all times, be it through professional or private activities. It is prepared to voluntarily exploit itself. This pressure to perform results in extreme addictive behaviour, which calls for constant commitment and input. It represents a new type of “material value”.